How To Be Both

Commissioned by MAN Booker for presentation to Ali Smith at the Booker Awards Dinner.

The book is a ‘dos a dos’ binding covered in deep blue goatskin and natural calfskin. Multiple onlays and underlays are used with printed sections of Francesco del Cossa’s painting ‘Allegory of March’ being visible underneath.

The cut away design echoes the layers of the fresco painting technique and also the many layers of the narrative. The technique of under painting (sinopia) is emulated by the use of brick red lines of recessed onlays.

The calligraphic fragments are reverse transfer printed calfskin taken from the letter written by del Cossa asking for a better rate of pay from the Duke of Ferrara.

The two pixilated characters echo the imagery of 1470 as viewed through a modern, digital medium.